A Casebook in the Meaning of the Closet

It's possible that Charles is getting all the blame for fagging, with none of the fun. He may be the victim of lingering anger over his treatment of Diana. There are still suspicions that he drove her (or even had her driven) to her death. It might be resentment of the gap between princely privacy and the hyper-surveillance of British life. After all, there are more spycams in London than in any city on earth. Or maybe this is another case of pleasure in the pain of famous othersGigli writ royal.

There's another, far more auspicious possibility, and it relates to the new fluidity in Britain, which extends from class to sexuality. It's inevitable that the monarchy is subject to this shift. That makes Charles a tragicomic figure, caught between the old code of silence and the new etiquette of full disclosure. At his expense, the British monarchy is being prodded into an institution that reflects emerging values of candor and variety. Maybe this isn't a scandal but the beginning of a reformation.